essays on the yellow wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper: Essay Examples

Welcome to The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Samples page prepared by our editorial team! Here you’ll find a heap of excellent ideas for The Yellow Wallpaper essay. Absolutely free research paper and essay samples on The Great Gatsby are collected here, on one page.

📝 The Yellow Wallpaper: Essay Samples List

• Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’: Point of View Genre: Essay Words: 1098 Focused on: The Yellow Wallpaper: literary analysis Characters mentioned: the Narrator
• The Yellow Wallpaper: Themes & Symbols Genre: Essay Words: 881 Focused on: The Yellow Wallpaper themes Characters mentioned: the Narrator
• The Need for Change in Ragged Dick and The Yellow Wallpaper Genre: Essay Words: 929 Focused on: The Yellow Wallpaper context Characters mentioned: the Narrator
• Depression due to Repression in The Yellow Wallpaper Genre: Research paper Words: 1837 Focused on: Feminism in The Yellow Wallpaper Characters mentioned: the Narrator
• A Rose for Emily and The Yellow Wallpaper: Compare & Contrast Essay Genre: Essay Words: 875 Focused on: Compare & contrast Characters mentioned: the Narrator
• Feminism in The Yellow Wallpaper Genre: Essay Words: 896 Focused on: Feminism in The Yellow Wallpaper Characters mentioned: the Narrator, John
• Loneliness in The Yellow Wallpaper Genre: Essay Words: 955 Focused on: The Yellow Wallpaper themes Characters mentioned: the Narrator, John, Jennie
• Gender Roles in the The Yellow Wallpaper Genre: Essay Words: 1480 Focused on: Feminism in The Yellow Wallpaper Characters mentioned: the Narrator, John, Jennie
• Marriage in The Yellow Wallpaper Genre: Critical writing Words: 598 Focused on: The Yellow Wallpaper themes Characters mentioned: the Narrator
• The Story of an Hour & The Yellow Wallpaper: Characters Comparison Genre: Essay Words: 1319 Focused on: The Yellow Wallpaper characters Characters mentioned: the Narrator, John
• The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Genre: Essay Words: 1734 Focused on: The Yellow Wallpaper themes Characters mentioned: the Narrator, John
• The Yellow Wallpaper: Symbolism Genre: Argumentative essay Words: 570 Focused on: The Yellow Wallpaper symbolism Characters mentioned: the Narrator
• Women’s Role in The Yellow Wallpaper, The Awakening, & The Revolt of Mother Genre: Essay Words: 700 Focused on: Compare & contrast Characters mentioned: the Narrator
• Solitude as a Theme in The Yellow Wallpaper & A Rose for Emily Genre: Essay Words: 1821 Focused on: Compare & contrast Characters mentioned: the Narrator
• The Yellow Wallpaper: Summary, Analysis, & Interpretation Essay Genre: Essay Words: 609 Focused on: The Yellow Wallpaper analysis Characters mentioned: the Narrator
• The Yellow Wallpaper: Symbolic Interpretations Essay Genre: Essay Words: 648 Focused on: The Yellow Wallpaper symbols Characters mentioned: the Narrator
• Gender Roles in The Yellow Wallpaper & Trifles Genre: Essay Words: 2159 Focused on: Compare & contrast Characters mentioned: the Narrator, John
• Mental Illness as a Theme of The Yellow Wallpaper Genre: Essay Words: 1395 Focused on: The Yellow Wallpaper themes Characters mentioned: the Narrator, John
• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to LinkedIn
• Share to email

Study Guide Menu

• Summary & Analysis
• Themes & Symbols
• Quotes Explained
• Essay Topics
• Essay Examples
• Questions & Answers
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, May 21). The Yellow Wallpaper: Essay Examples. https://ivypanda.com/lit/the-yellow-wallpaper/essay-examples/

"The Yellow Wallpaper: Essay Examples." IvyPanda , 21 May 2024, ivypanda.com/lit/the-yellow-wallpaper/essay-examples/.

IvyPanda . (2024) 'The Yellow Wallpaper: Essay Examples'. 21 May.

IvyPanda . 2024. "The Yellow Wallpaper: Essay Examples." May 21, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/lit/the-yellow-wallpaper/essay-examples/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Yellow Wallpaper: Essay Examples." May 21, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/lit/the-yellow-wallpaper/essay-examples/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Yellow Wallpaper: Essay Examples." May 21, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/lit/the-yellow-wallpaper/essay-examples/.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” and Women’s Pain

Charlotte Gilman wrote her famous short story in response to her own experience having her pain belittled and misunderstood by a male physician.

The woman is ill, but nobody believes her. She sits in a room with yellow wallpaper, unable to convince the men around her that her suffering is real. “You see he does not believe I am sick!” she writes of her doctor husband.

That cry, uttered by the unnamed protagonist of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1892 short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” could just as well be that of Abby Norman, author of Ask Me About My Uterus , or Porochista Khakpour, author of Sick . Both memoirs, published this year, focus on women whose physical symptoms are downplayed and disbelieved. And both carry uncomfortable echoes of Gilman’s creepy story.

The tale, which follows its protagonist’s slow descent into madness as she gradually discerns a woman trapped inside the yellow wallpaper of her sickroom, has long been heralded as a feminist masterpiece, a cry against the silencing patriarchy. But literary scholar Jane F. Thrailkill warns against looking too hard for those meanings in the text . Instead, she focuses on Gilman’s own insistence that medical gender distinctions hurt female patients.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” comes from Gilman’s own struggle with a “nervous disorder,” a depression for which she was treated by a physician named S. Weir Mitchell. It was a new diagnosis at the time, and when physicians treated women with complaints for which they could find no obvious source, they turned to new diagnostic techniques and treatments.

Mitchell was entirely interested in the body, not what women had to say about their own symptoms. His signature “rest cure” relied on severe restriction of the body. Patients were kept completely isolated, fed rich, creamy foods and forbidden to do any kind of activity, from reading a book to going on a walk. “Complete submission to the authority of the physician” and enforced rest were seen as part of the cure.

But Mitchell was no women’s specialist. In fact, writes Thrailkill, he honed his medical skills during the Civil War, treating soldiers who became “hysterical” or developed symptoms like phantom limbs after amputations, surgeries, and traumatic battles. As a result, Gilman was treated with what Thrailkill calls “a model of disease articulated through experience with male bodies.” Mitchell likened the strain of the nineteenth-century home to that of war and his female patients to vampires who sucked the life out of everyone around them.

Want more stories like this one?

Get your fix of JSTOR Daily’s best stories in your inbox each Thursday.

Privacy Policy   Contact Us You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the provided link on any marketing message.

Gilman bucked hard against her treatment and Mitchell’s misogynistic reign. Nonetheless, notes Thrailkill, she shared some of his views. Like Mitchell, Gilman believed that psychological conditions were physical ones. But she used that belief to push for equality both in medical treatment and in life. Women’s brains are no different than men’s, she argued, and women should be able to sidestep a stifling home life in favor of a professional career.

Today, it’s more common for women to document their pain through memoir as opposed to fiction. Books like Sick and Ask Me About My Uterus  insist on gender parity in medicine, while also situating women’s pain within a patriarchy that stifles and silences. Thrailkill encourages readers to try reading “ The Yellow Wallpaper” literally. Gilman, she writes, wanted the story to shock readers—specifically, her own doctor—into changing their treatment of women.

JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. JSTOR Daily readers can access the original research behind our articles for free on JSTOR.

Get Our Newsletter

More stories.

• The Joy of Burglary

• Saving Art from the Revolution, for the Revolution

• Reading for LGBTQ+ Pride Month

Sui Sin Far, the Chinese Canadian-American Sentimentalist

Recent posts.

• Who Took the Cocaine Out of Coca-Cola?
• The Great Dissenter’s Complications

Support JSTOR Daily

Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

The Yellow Wallpaper - Essay Samples And Topic Ideas For Free

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a seminal piece of feminist literature, explores themes of mental illness, patriarchal oppression, and female autonomy. Essays could delve into the narrative structure, the symbolism of the wallpaper, and the psychological descent of the protagonist. They might also discuss the historical context of women’s mental health during the late 19th century, and how Gilman’s personal experiences influenced her work. Discussions could extend to the story’s influence on feminist literary criticism, its relevance in contemporary discussions on mental health and gender, and how “The Yellow Wallpaper” resonates with or challenges modern readers in understanding the historical and ongoing struggles for women’s autonomy and well-being. We’ve gathered an extensive assortment of free essay samples on the topic of The Yellow Wallpaper you can find at PapersOwl Website. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

Feminism in the Yellow Wallpaper and the Story of an Hour

Throughout “The Yellow Wallpaper”, written by Charlotte Perkins Gillman, the protagonist is described as a woman of the 1800’s facing oppression by male dominance. In comparison, the protagonist from Kate Chopin’s, “The Story of an Hour”, experiences the same oppression. Both protagonists are dealing with some type of loss over the course of their short story, but in contrast the effectiveness of their loss differs on opposite ends of the spectrum. Ultimately both protagonists are portrayed as women who experience […]

Symbolism in the Yellow Wallpaper

In Charlotte Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," the storyteller is found at the highest point of an old home in a room decorated in a yellow wallpaper. The lady depicted had recently given birth to a child but is presently experiencing what she describes as a "nervous condition.As the lady stays in the room, she becomes fixated on the yellow wallpaper of her room. Inside the strict components of the story are images that demonstrate the hidden message of […]

Irony and Symbols: the Way of Gilman and Poe

If Edgar Allan Poe had lived to see the days that Charlotte Perkins Gilman was alive and writing, he would have commended her for her excellent taste in literary devices. It may be true that the father of dark romanticism and this social reformist have little in common, between their life stories and the messages they aimed to portray in their works. However, Gilman and Poe both utilized a combination of literary devices, specifically symbolism and irony, to solidify the […]

We will write an essay sample crafted to your needs.

The Yellow Wallpaper Character Analysis

“The Yellow Wallpaper” is a feminist short story by Charlotte Perkins- Gilman. The meaning of the story is beyond belief as it see the sights into the basic issues of a woman's place in society, and women's rights in the 19th century. Charlotte Perkins-Gilman's theme behind the short story was an awareness approach and a feminist approach. The main character in the story struggles against the masculine ways of thinking and society norms or standards. She also struggles with mental […]

The Yellow Wallpaper Feminism

Any literary work intends to evoke some profound feelings and impressions that readers link to their personal experience and reality around. Charlotte Perkins Gilman presents a feminist gothic story “The Yellow Wallpaper” that discloses the issues of female suffering and lack of freedom in the patriarchal society that limits women’s choices and desires. The protagonist faces discrimination and neglect that result in her physical and psychological breakdown, broken illusions about self-identity, and madness as a response to inside and outside […]

Psychological and Physical Well-being of Women in the XIX Century

The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story by American author Charlotte Perkins Gilman, first published in January 1892 at the New England press. It is considered as an important first study of American feminist writing, because of its example of the attitudes towards psychological and physical well-being of women in the nineteenth century. Narrated in the first person, this story is a collection of diary entries written by a woman whose physician partner (John) has rented the ancient house for […]

Jane’s Depression in the Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper is written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. This story is about a young woman by the name of Jane who is a wife, trapped in a room. Jane suffers from depression following the birth of her child. Her husband, John, diagnoses her behavior as melancholia. He prescribes her rest and leases a house in the country for her rehabilitation. John is a respected physician, so Jane initially needs his advice. He does not let her write, which is […]

The Yellow Wallpaper: the Symbolism between the Mental Conditions and the Wallpaper

       In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, there is a connection between the narrator's mental structure and the wallpaper itself. As the woman works to gain back her sanity, she rips the paper down to free herself from that confinement, as she watches her mental state deteriorate day by day. Niko Kazantzakis, a Greek novelist, states “A person needs a little madness or else they never dare cut the rope and be free”. On a larger scale, […]

“Dragos Tenter” Fiction Paper

The Oscars, the Emmys and the Tonys are awards given to the best of the arts. Literature is an inspiration for TV programs and Broadway plays. There are four nominees for the Best American short story of all time. The nominees are “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway, “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The winner is “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman […]

Feminist Criticism in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”

In the 1890 's women were not allowed to have a voice for themselves, their husbands were the ones that were allowed to make all the decisions in the house. Charlotte Perkins-Gilman had a feminist approach to this story, due to the protagonists' struggles against male thinking and society norms. The story tells of the close-mindedness of how postpartum depression was treated and dealt with by society. It tells of a woman who is the narrator, who is going through […]

The Yellow Wallpaper Victorian Era Gender Roles

The Civil War had just recently come to a close bringing about many changes in American culture. The archaic class system had been shaken, leaving the wealthy and middle class void of social standards and in search of a new identity. In an act of desperation, Americans adopted European culture, a culture tyrannized by men, as their own. In the 1890s short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman tells the story of a woman who is diagnosed with hysteria […]

About Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s the Yellow Wall-Paper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wall-Paper is a short story that is told in entries of a secret diary. The story starts when Jane, the narrator and her husband, John, move into an estate that they will be spending three months in. When they first move in, the narrator asks for the room on the very first floor with roses that surround the window. Her husband, however, had other ideas and bluntly refuses, saying the room is extremely small as […]

The Yellow Wallpaper Time Setting Analysis

The Yellow Wallpaper was allegory gothic literature by charlotte Gerkins Gilman written in 19th century a period of social change and the beginning of industrial revolution a time where man dominated everything including, social, economic and domestic issues, although it was a time of abolition of slavery, social injustice against women was prevalence where woman symbolises assets to acquire just like furniture or an object of bearing children for the family. The woman at that time lack locus standing and […]

The Examination of Literary Devices in “The Yellow Wallpaper”

During the nineteenth century, women were seen as property rather than human beings with rights. Because of this ordeal, women became active feminists and social reformists in order to change their social rank in society, known as the Women’s Suffrage Movement. Among these women was Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who wrote many works pertaining to the discrimination and minority of women during these times to change how people viewed women in society. This progressive movement had a heavy impact on Gilman’s […]

About Postpartum Depression in the Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper does not, in my opinion, reflect contemporary concerns of women. Gilman's short story focuses on the idea that men control the lives of women in essentially every aspect. The narrator's husband tells her not to do anything to stimulate her brain. He asks her not to write, think about her condition, or to talk to anyone in a stimulating fashion. Her whole life at this point is decided by her husband and brother, who […]

The Yellow Wallpaper Theme

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Gilman is a short story of a young woman’s journal entries, who is seemingly mentally unstable. She shows symptoms of anxiety, depression, and “hysteria”. The narrator’s name is not definitive but is alluded to being Jane and for the sake of clarity in this essay, she will be mentioned as such. John, her husband, is a physician and believes she just needs to rest to be cured; he rents a mansion for 3 months in […]

Position of Women

"In "Their Eyes Were Watching God", women are confined as objects of desire to men. In the novel, Janie’s first husband, Logan, believes that having a wife is to make his life easier so he would not be constantly working. Logan insists that Janie helps him with his stuff when he says, “You ain’t got no particular place. It’s wherever Ah need yuh. Git uh move on yuh, and dat quick” (Hurston 30). It is obvious that Janie is seen […]

Symbolizing the Control of Women in the Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story in which Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author, symbolizes the control of women and their subjugation in society around that era. The narrator, Perkin's main character in the story, suffers from postpartum depression and was prescribed by her husband, John, a physician, bed rest. Later, the narrator is placed in a room with a yellow wallpaper. The narrator believes that behind the wallpaper she can visualize a woman. Her obsession grows, finds clues towards […]

The Narrator of the Yellow Wallpaper

In the beginning of the story, the narrator explained the house as being a beautiful, silent, far away from the village, gated, and a haunted house. She already described the home as something devil-like possessed and wondered why else the house went on sale for so cheap and why it was abandoned for so long. Has strict rules by her husband to stay in the house all day with some exercise outside in the gated garden. While being indoors all […]

Analysis of the Yellow Wallpaper

The yellow wallpaper ends with the narrator and her husband are subsequently leaving soon, and employees pack up the furniture. John desires to remain round the nearby area, and the narrator is aware this is her last probability to free the lady in the wallpaper. Jennie wishes to set down with the narrator; in any case, the narrator uncovers to her that she will relaxation better besides any different individual. Right when the moon turns out, the woman in the […]

The Story the Yellow Wallpaper

The story starts with the narrator suffering from postpartum depression after childbirth. On the old days, this was known as woman hysterics. Due to people who were supposed to rent the house were wealthy people who lost their money, the house was rented for a low price. The narrator expresses the hate she has for the room she is locked in because of the ugly wallpaper, so ugly it drives her crazy. John is the husband of the narrator, who […]

“One Hour Story” by Kate Chopin and “Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Stetson

In the late 1800’s, the roles of women placed them in conditions which much less power and opportunity than is available in the modern era. The Story of An Hour, by Kate Chopin and The Yellow Wall-Paper, by Charlotte Perkins Stetson are both short stories written by women in the late 1800’s and the tone displayed by the authors is that of oppression. Both stories bear similar themes. The following paper will compare and contrast the message’s in both stories […]

The Role of the Yellow Wallpaper

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" showcases the female narrator's seclusion from society while attempting to come to terms with her rather horrifying dementia. It takes the form of a horrific tale, detailing the hidden internal struggles of domestic abuse. What's more, it is a flat-out rejection of the role Gilman believes women are forcibly pushed into isolation at the hands of patriarchal abuse. Her psychological pain is diagnosed as a sort of nervous disorder by none other […]

Gender Oppression in “The Yellow Wallpaper”

In Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” the narrator is suffering from post-partum depression; however, her husband who happens to be a physician, ignores her and just assumes she needs rest. In doing so, the narrator’s illness progressed and eventually lead to her insanity. During the 1800’s men were superior to women and were expected to be a dutiful housewife and obey their husband. However, in the narrator’s case obeying her husband was detrimental to her sanity. Gender […]

Comparative Study on the Yellow Wallpaper and Young Goodman Brown

The book "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about a man (Goodman Brown) who leaves home to attend an unholy meeting at the heart of a forest, only to find that most of his pious friends are actually ardent devil worshippers. He remains wary of them when he goes back home till his dying moments. The author is an American novelist and short story writer. Most of his literary works revolve in and around England, most of which features […]

The Feminist Views on the Yellow Wallpaper

In the short story, The Yellow Wallpaper, written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a story about feminist literature and what it was like for women in the nineteenth century. Women in that century faced several obstacles that nobody would ever understand. This woman was placed in a room and that was all she knew was being in that room. She was placed in there by her husband which also was her physician who thinks she is suffering from a temporary […]

A Comparative Analysis of Female Characters in Literature and Television

While the Story of an Hour and the Yellow Wallpaper are two distinctly different stories written by two separate authors, they share many of the same themes and elements. Both works depict a woman facing oppression through marriage and society, longing for freedom and autonomy. This theme is still very relevant and is at the center of Sansa Starks character arc in Game of Thrones. All three women face an oppressive society and desire freedom and independence. In all three […]

Critical Evaluation the Yellow Wallpaper

In the story of The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator, Jane, is diagnosed with nervous depression. This condition is brought up multiple times throughout the story in many parts but in different forms. This is what ultimately leads her to go insane staring at the yellow wallpaper. The narrator puts enormous emphasis on this condition in subtle ways. Her choice of wording in the above text has more than one meaning, it is an extremely important choice of words for the […]

Control and Feminism in the Yellow Wallpaper

Acquiring Basic Rights for women has been a nonyielding fight since the beginning of time, and it was through such strife that the movement known as feminism was born. Feminism can be defined in the dictionary as “ Advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes”, this type of advocacy occurs in many different ways but some of the earliest and most influential came from literature. The early-to-mid-nineteenth century was a landmarking time for women […]

The Historical Context in Charlotte Gilman’s the Yellow Wallpaper: Women’s March

The views of current society, along with past generations, have shown women have been relatively domesticated, only having a purpose when it comes time to bear children and take charge of all household affairs. The men, on the other hand, have tendencies to go out in the world and provide for their families by doing the “harder” labor. For too long, this has been seen as the status quo. Women are heads of the household only and are inferior in […]

Additional Example Essays

• Reasons Why I Want to Study Abroad
• Comparison Of Introverts VS Extroverts
• The Cask of Amontillado Literary Analysis
• Colonism in Things Fall Apart
• The short story "The Cask of Amontillado"
• Beowulf and Grendel Comparison
• Loyalty in the Odyssey Essay
• August Heat Literary Analysis
• Beowulf and Sir Gawain: Compare and Contrast
• The Meaning of Being Human
• Puritanism In "The Crucible" Arthur Miller
• Edgar Allan Poe Inspired by Others: Drawn by Influence, Shaping Literary Legacy

How To Write an Essay About The Yellow Wallpaper

Introduction to charlotte perkins gilman's the yellow wallpaper.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a pivotal work in feminist literature, exploring themes of mental illness, female oppression, and the struggle for self-expression. Your essay should begin with an introduction to the short story, outlining its plot which centers on a woman's descent into psychosis and her obsession with the yellow wallpaper in her room. It's important to contextualize the story within the era it was written, highlighting the 19th-century attitudes towards women's health, both physical and mental. This introduction sets the stage for an analysis of the story's key themes and Gilman's commentary on the societal norms of her time.

Analyzing Key Themes and Symbolism

The body of your essay should delve into the story's themes and symbols. One of the main themes to explore is the treatment of women's mental health in the 19th century, particularly the practice of the "rest cure" prescribed to the protagonist. Discuss how the yellow wallpaper itself becomes a symbol of the protagonist's mental state and her struggle against the patriarchal structures that confine her. The story's exploration of identity and self-expression through the protagonist's secret journal entries can also be a critical point of analysis. Support your discussion with specific examples and quotes from the text, and consider how Gilman uses narrative techniques to convey the protagonist’s gradual loss of reality and her increasing obsession with the wallpaper.

Contextual Analysis

Offer a contextual analysis of "The Yellow Wallpaper," considering it within the broader framework of feminist literature and its historical context. Explore how the story reflects Gilman's own experiences and views on women's rights and the societal expectations of women during her time. Discuss the public and critical reception of the story when it was first published and how perceptions of it have evolved over time. This analysis should demonstrate an understanding of how "The Yellow Wallpaper" goes beyond a simple tale of psychological horror to become a powerful feminist statement.

Concluding Thoughts

Conclude your essay by summarizing the key points of your analysis, emphasizing the significance of the story in both literary and historical contexts. Reflect on the enduring relevance of "The Yellow Wallpaper" in modern times, particularly in discussions surrounding mental health and gender equality. Your conclusion should not only reiterate the main themes of the story but also invite readers to consider its impact and relevance in today's society. A well-crafted conclusion will leave the reader with a deeper understanding of Gilman's work and its contribution to feminist literature.

1. Tell Us Your Requirements

2. Pick your perfect writer

3. Get Your Paper and Pay

Hi! I'm Amy, your personal assistant!

Don't know where to start? Give me your paper requirements and I connect you to an academic expert.

short deadlines

100% Plagiarism-Free

Certified writers

The Symbolism of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ Explained

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is an 1892 short story by the American writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman. A powerful study of mental illness and the inhuman treatments administered in its name, the story succeeds largely because of its potent symbolism. Let’s take a look at some of the key symbols in the tale.

We have summarised the plot of the story and analysed it in detail in a separate post .

But let’s briefly summarise the plot of the story here, as a reminder: the narrator and her husband John, a doctor, have come to stay at a large country house. As the story develops, we realise that the woman’s husband has brought her to the house in order to try to cure her of her mental illness. His proposed (well, enforced ) treatment is to lock his wife away from everyone except him, and to withhold everything from her that might excite her.

It becomes clear, as the story develops, that depriving the female narrator of anything to occupy her mind is making her mental illness worse, not better. The narrator outlines to us how she sometimes sits for hours in her room, tracing the patterns in the yellow wallpaper on the walls of her room.

She then tells us she thinks she can see a woman ‘stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern.’ She becomes obsessed with the wallpaper as her mental state deteriorates, before eventually locking herself within the room and crawling around on the floor.

The Mansion.

‘ The Yellow Wallpaper ’ begins with the idea that we are about to read a haunted house story, a Gothic tale, a piece of horror. Such stories were a staple of late nineteenth-century magazines and enjoyed huge popularity.

And why else, wonders the story’s female narrator, would the house be available so cheaply unless it was haunted? And why had it remained unoccupied for so long? This is how many haunted house tales begin, so we are deliberately placed on this track, but it will turn out to be the wrong track.

But as we read on, we realise that the ‘haunting’ is not supernatural but psychological: the narrator of Gilman’s story contains her own demons within her mind, and her husband’s ‘treatment’ actually accentuates and intensifies these.

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ has the structure and style of a diary. This is in keeping with what the female narrator tells us: that she can only write down her experiences when her husband John is not around, because he forbids her to write because he thinks it will overexcite her. The whole story thus has the air of a secret text, with the narrator confiding in us – indeed, the reader is her only confidant.

But it also has the effect of shifting the narrative tense: from the usual past tense to the more unusual present tense. This has benefits in that it creates the sense of a continuous narrative, and events unfolding as we read them.

The Husband.

The narrator’s husband, John, is a doctor, but he is a world away from the ‘mad doctor’ trope found in Gothic texts, especially those influenced by Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein and Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde .

John’s greatest flaw is not his inherent evil but his dogged devotion to the prevailing scientific opinion of the day. His danger to his wife is not in being some eccentric or power-hungry outlier, but in holding too fast to the medical orthodoxy of the time. He believes that incarcerating his wife alone away from her family – even her own children – will make her better.

Gilman uses suggestive symbolism to dramatise the complex relationship between husband and wife in the story. Take that final dramatic scene where John is about to break down the door to his wife’s chamber with an axe. So far, so ‘mad axeman found in countless horror stories and fairy tales’, with shades of Bluebeard , that wife-killer from European folk history.

But this narrative is complicated by the fact that John has come to save his wife from herself, while she – having locked herself away in the room in order to protect her husband and family from the strange women she believes are behind the yellow wallpaper in the room – believes she is protecting him.

Of course, her madness has been made worse by John’s treatment of her in the first place, but he believes he is acting in her own interests. The symbolism of the axe here, and the husband being prepared to break down the door to his wife’s bedroom, is layered and complex.

The Nursery.

It is significant that the room in which the narrator is incarcerated is the old nursery in the large house. The narrator tells us that there are bars on the windows to protect little children from hurting themselves, although ‘bars’ here also symbolise the narrator’s de facto imprisonment in the room.

The fact that the room was once a nursery and then, the narrator deduces, a ‘gymnasium’ is loaded with significance. The room thus symbolises the narrator’s own childlike state as she is treated like a naughty child by her husband and locked away in her room. The reference to a gymnasium is ironic, since a gymnasium is a room for exercise, but the room actually worsens the narrator’s health.

The Yellow Wallpaper.

The most powerful symbol in the story is the yellow wallpaper itself. But it is also, perhaps, the most ambiguous symbol in the story, because it can invite at least two very different interpretations.

The first interpretation views the yellow wallpaper as an outward and visible symbol of the narrator’s own internal state of mind. Her disordered mental state leads her to see all manner of figures in the paper’s patterns. Human beings have evolved to look for patterns as a survival mechanism, but here the narrator’s pattern-hunting is her undoing.

At one point, she mentions a ‘particularly irritating’ pattern which ‘you can only see it in certain lights, and not clearly then’. This closely ties the paper’s patterns with the narrator’s shifting moods and highlights the subjective nature of what she sees (or thinks she sees) in the wallpaper.

However, given the kinds of shapes the narrator describes seeing in the wallpaper, a second interpretation is possible. This one is more firmly focused on the story’s feminist message, and sees the shapes in the wallpaper as symbols of female oppression at the time the story was written. For example, the narrator describes detecting a figure ‘like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern.’

Indeed, the word ‘creeping’ (and its accompanying adjective, ‘creepy’, which seems doubly apt here) recurs numerous times throughout this short story. It implies that the narrator sees a version of herself – and all oppressed women – within the wallpaper, having to tread carefully around others, unable to be fully themselves. The verb ‘stooping’ also suggests bearing the weight of some kind of burden.

Discover more from Interesting Literature

Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.

Type your email…

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

The Yellow Wallpaper

By charlotte perkins gilman, the yellow wallpaper essay questions.

How would "The Yellow Wallpaper" be different if it were told from John's point of view?

If the story were told from John's perspective, it would be a much more detached view of the narrator's descent into madness. Although the readers do not know what John thinks, it is clear that he believes that the medical treatment is correct. Not only would his perspective add another dimension to the woman's madness, but it would make him a more sympathetic character and perhaps even make their love story more tragic.

Who does Gilman ultimately blame for the narrator's descent into madness? Why?

In some ways, Gilman can seem to blame both John and S. Weir Mitchell for the narrator's ultimate insanity. Although they both mean well, their decision to promote the "rest cure" treatment is certainly the catalyst for the narrator's mental break. However, at the same time, Gilman could blame the society of the time, a society that expected women to be perfect wives and mothers and nothing else.

What is the significance of the first-person perspective of the narrative?

The first-person perspective of the narrative is very important because it allows the reader to understand and experience the narrator's descent into madness on a personal level. Instead of discovering the narrator's insanity from the detached perspective of a third-person narrator, the reader is present in the narrator's head at every stage of her insanity. As a result, the story is much more powerful and ultimately more disconcerting.

Is John the villain in the story? Why or why not?

Many literary scholars have argued that John is the clear villain of "The Yellow Wallpaper." Not only does he confine the narrator to the nursery for the "rest cure" treatment, he will not allow her to express her creativity or have any say in her life. However, at the same time, it is apparent that John loves his wife very much and truly wants her to be happy and healthy again. An argument can be made for either side, but the fact remains that John is simply a product of his chauvinistic society.

What is the significance of the other female characters in the story?

The only other female characters who play any sort of role in the story are Mary and Jennie. As the nanny, Mary is immediately presented as an ideal mother figure. This is emphasized by her name, which evokes the image of the Virgin Mary, a stereotype of ideal motherhood. As the house keeper and John's sister, Jennie fulfills all of the other wifely duties neglected by the narrator. Because of her illness (and perhaps because of her propensity to write), the narrator is unable and unwilling to fulfill her socially-accepted duties as a wife and mother.

What are some additional meanings behind the color of the wallpaper? How do these explanations change an understanding of the narrative?

One additional reading of the color of the wallpaper is that it promotes a counter-intuitive reading. The color yellow is normally associated with happiness and light; in this case, it is linked to a malignant source that drives the narrator insane. Because the reader expects the color yellow to be benevolent and is disappointed, the reader is also forced to question everything else in the novel, especially those things that seem to be obvious. Other possible readings are that the color of the wallpaper relates to illness (specifically, jaundice) or even that it relates to discriminated minorities of the time period (such as the Chinese).

How does "The Yellow Wallpaper" present the conflict between creativity and rationality?

The yellow wallpaper itself is presented as a symbol of creativity. With its endless swirls and ornaments, the wallpaper does not follow any set pattern; in fact, it is this lack of organization and structure that preoccupies the narrator to such an extent. In contrast to the unwieldy creativity of the wallpaper, the majority of the narrator's life is centered in the world of rationality. John, in particular, is devoted to all things rational and criticizes his wife's vivid imagination and penchant for fiction. The narrator is caught in the conflict between these two worlds; her attempt to suppress her creative spirit in favor of John's rationality leads to her mental breakdown.

Does "The Yellow Wallpaper" have a happy or sad ending? Explain your answer.

The story ends with the narrator entrenched in complete insanity, certainly not a typical happy ending. Moreover, it is clear to the reader that the marriage is over, and John has finally lost the woman that he loves. However, the ending can also be read as a triumph for the narrator. She has finally freed herself from the constraints of her oppressive society and can revel in the liberty of her creativity. Unfortunately, this liberation goes hand in hand with the loss of her sanity.

Would the narrator still have gone insane if she had been confined to a room other than the nursery? Why or why not?

At the beginning of the story, it is unclear if the narrator is actually insane. If she is truly ill, then it is likely that she would have gone mad even if she had not been confined to the nursery. If the narrator is not ill at the start of the story, then the mere confinement and inactivity could have been sufficient to cause a mental breakdown. Either way, the yellow wallpaper serves as an obvious catalyst for her mental deterioration, but we do not know if it is merely a symptom of her insanity or the cause.

What happens to the narrator after the story ends?

After the story ends and John returns to consciousness, the narrator would certainly be taken to an insane asylum or sanatorium of some kind. It is possible that John would take her to receive treatment from S. Weir Mitchell, unless the narrator's case was thought to be incurable. The warped liberty that the narrator achieves for herself at the end of "The Yellow Wallpaper" is only transient. If the woman in the wall is not returned to the bars behind the wallpaper, then it is likely that the narrator would be confined behind bars of her own.

The Yellow Wallpaper Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Yellow Wallpaper is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Why is the house standing empty after so many years?

We are never apprised of the reason that the house is empty.

8. Throughout the story, the narrator uses the word “creep” and “creeping” to describe the wallpaper figure’s movements. What does this word choice suggest about the narrator?

The words "creep" and "creeping" suggest that the narrator has sensed a disturbing feeling from the wallpaper figure’s movements. The narrator has begun to see the pattern as that of a woman wanting to be free. She related herself with this woman...

6. How does the story’s narrative form contribute to the development of the narrator’s point of view

The first person narrative is instrumental in conveying the events story's events as the narrator experiences them without the use of flashbacks or alternate settings. In turn, we as readers, experience the events alongside the narrator and become...

Study Guide for The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper study guide contains a biography of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Yellow Wallpaper
• The Yellow Wallpaper Summary
• Character List

Essays for The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Yellow Wallpaper.

• Responding to the Wallpaper
• The Stages of Feminine Injustice
• "Personally, I Disagree With Their Ideas"
• Paper, Paper, On the Wall...
• Prescription to Madness

Lesson Plan for The Yellow Wallpaper

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Introduction to The Yellow Wallpaper
• Relationship to Other Books
• Notes to the Teacher

E-Text of The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper E-Text contains the full text of The Yellow Wallpaper

• Full Text of The Yellow Wallpaper

Wikipedia Entries for The Yellow Wallpaper

• Introduction
• Plot summary
• Interpretations
• Dramatic adaptations

• Undergraduate
• High School
• Architecture
• American History
• Asian History
• Antique Literature
• American Literature
• Asian Literature
• Classic English Literature
• World Literature
• Creative Writing
• Linguistics
• Criminal Justice
• Legal Issues
• Anthropology
• Archaeology
• Political Science
• World Affairs
• African-American Studies
• East European Studies
• Latin-American Studies
• Native-American Studies
• West European Studies
• Family and Consumer Science
• Social Issues
• Women and Gender Studies
• Social Work
• Natural Sciences
• Pharmacology
• Earth science
• Agriculture
• Agricultural Studies
• Computer Science
• IT Management
• Mathematics
• Investments
• Engineering and Technology
• Engineering
• Aeronautics
• Medicine and Health
• Alternative Medicine
• Communications and Media
• Advertising
• Communication Strategies
• Public Relations
• Educational Theories
• Teacher's Career
• Chicago/Turabian
• Company Analysis
• Education Theories
• Shakespeare
• Canadian Studies
• Food Safety
• Relation of Global Warming and Extreme Weather Condition
• Movie Review
• Admission Essay
• Annotated Bibliography
• Application Essay
• Article Critique

Article Review

• Article Writing
• Book Review
• Business Plan
• Business Proposal
• Capstone Project
• Cover Letter
• Creative Essay
• Dissertation
• Dissertation - Abstract
• Dissertation - Conclusion
• Dissertation - Discussion
• Dissertation - Hypothesis
• Dissertation - Introduction
• Dissertation - Literature
• Dissertation - Methodology
• Dissertation - Results
• GCSE Coursework
• Grant Proposal
• Marketing Plan
• Multiple Choice Quiz
• Personal Statement
• Power Point Presentation
• Power Point Presentation With Speaker Notes
• Questionnaire
• Reaction Paper
• Research Paper
• Research Proposal
• SWOT analysis
• Thesis Paper
• Online Quiz
• Literature Review
• Movie Analysis
• Statistics problem
• Math Problem
• All papers examples
• How It Works
• Money Back Policy
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• We Are Hiring

Literary Analysis of “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Essay Example

Pages: 7

Words: 1977

Hire a Writer for Custom Essay

Use 10% Off Discount: "custom10" in 1 Click 👇

You are free to use it as an inspiration or a source for your own work.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a seemingly personal account of female oppression during the 19 th century. At that time in history women were commonly seen as possessions or property, rather than an equal partner to their spouse. The story details the narrator’s journey as she explains many details about the people and places that surround her, which are very symbolic for a number of themes. Not only are relationships and society restrictive, but she also finds that her house and bedroom are particularly repressive to her physical being as well as her emotional growth. This paper will explore the various symbolic meanings found in Gilman’s story and also relate that to the oppressive nature of women during that time in history. The narrator identifies her feelings of oppression and imprisonment in her marriage just as the “woman behind the wallpaper” does; both women are looking for a way out, but unable to escape the physical restraints placed on them.

A Summer Retreat For Nervous Depression

The story begins with the account of both the house and grounds that the narrator and her husband will be staying at for a summer retreat. She is very expressive with her descriptions, but she spends much of her time explaining how she believes that there is something off or “queer” about the house and grounds. Once inside the house she begins to imagine and even describes the patterns in the wallpaper and walls of the home. The negative energy that she uses to explain could be from her being diagnosed with “nervous depression” by her husband, who is also a doctor. She states that she is prescribed “phosphates and tonics….and absolutely forbidden to work until I am well again (Gilman 1). In order to better understand the narrator and her feelings, one must understand the viewpoint and beliefs about women during this time. At this point in history, women that suffered from mood swings or other emotions were often to be said to be crazy or have depression that should be treated with rest and restricted activity. This is exactly what the narrator is supposed to do, rest, stay in her bedroom and is explicitly forbidden to write or express her thoughts. Her creative expression kept in her journal is considered badly John and she is forced to hide her journal from him as well as and others that enter the home.

One of the most symbolic meanings of the story is the restriction of the narrator’s ability to write in her journal or express her thoughts. This suggests that her thoughts and feelings are not important to her husband, John or anyone for that matter. She relates to the reader that John suggests that her writing is simply neurotic worry and that it is not good for her treatment. Her treatment of course is rest and staying out of the way of her husband for the most part, which causes her to see herself as a burden (Gilman 3). At this time in history mental illness was poorly understood and those afflicted were often locked away or isolated from others. It was believed, just like the narrator states that the afflicted individual must take control of their emotions and make the necessary changes. Women were often treated like children in the respect that they needed to be guided and were unable to make decisions for themselves. To further this train of thought, John commonly referred to his wife in the story as a “blessed little goose” and even a little girl (Gilman 7). While it seems that John is giving his wife pet names, these are more symbolic of a person that is unable to care for themselves or is childlike, which was consistent with the beliefs of the time.

Not only was he attempting to control his wife through their marriage, but he was also a doctor that could prescribe “treatment” for her, which further restricted her.

Bars on the Windows

The narrator was locked away on the second floor and her husband and sister in law, Jennie and a nanny were her caregivers. Her food is brought to her and the nanny tends to her child, while Jennie is said to be the perfect housekeeper. There is no reason for her to leave her room, as she is to rest and not engage in any work. The room that she is placed in is described as being lit by the sun and spacious, but she details that it may have been where children stayed.  The manner by which she describes leads the reader to believe that it is a nursery, as the windows are barred and there are rings and things in the wall (Gilman 2). She explains that there are bars on the windows, which likely were placed there because of the children that the room was used for. The symbolic bars on the window noted by the narrator represent the feeling of being held against her will with no escape. On one side she was faced with a repressive husband that refuses to hear her concerns and the only other way out was secured with bars. She sees her marriage and surroundings as a prison, bars on the windows and being confined to a room where her actions are dictated by others. She is not free to move about or engage in any activity under the pretext that it would worsen her condition. Ironically, depression is said to improve with a persons increased activity level, which is another form of symbolic oppression in the story and in society in general during that time period.

Women’s Oppression

At one point in the story she states that she likes to fantasize about people walking on the walkway or grounds of the estate, however is discouraged by her husband. This represents the disregard for her imagination or creative thought process. This can also be seen in his disregard for her writing as she states, “he hates to have me write a word” (Gilman 2).  A woman’s ability or right to work is an expression of herself and this story represents the way that it was stunted. Instead the only job that a woman was capable of was taking care of her family, and in this story that had even been taken from the narrator. It was the woman’s job to engage in domestic care of both the children and spouse, not work outside the home or have income of her own. Society placed many restrictive beliefs on females, giving them little freedom or rights as a citizen. During this time in history, women that divorced their husbands or did not obey them were considered second class citizens. In some cases they were not allowed to engage in society as they had broken the sacred code of marriage. In a sense the narrators physical being is trapped in her room, however her emotional being is trapped through the inability to write, work, care for her children or even explain her medical condition.

The Patterned Wallpaper

The narrator describes the wallpaper as yellow with a revolting and hideous pattern (Gilman 2). She sees bulbous images and what she describes as broken necks in the papers design. She asks her husband to change rooms; however he says that it is the best room for her recovery. Drawing from the fact that it was a child’s nursery one could make the comparison again that she is being treated like a child. Some of the wallpaper according to the narrator is already been picked or torn. Through the story, she begins to see figures behind the wallpaper that she believes is a woman who is trapped. This shadow or trapped woman is described as, “dim shapes that get clearer every day” (Gilman 10).

In the beginning, the narrator, was only able to see odd patterns, however not the females that she believes to be trapped. She says that the woman stays behind the bars as they bind her. The woman is silent or still during the day, however when night comes the woman rattles the bars that entrap her inside the wall or behind the wallpaper itself. Her beliefs about this woman can be seen as her own mental illness or struggle with being oppressed by her husband and society as well. She claims that this woman creeps and greatly desires to be set free from the constraints of the wallpaper.

Just as the narrator is hiding her journal and inner thoughts from her husband, the woman behind the wallpaper hides in the sunlight, but moves under the moonlight. This signifies the hiding of the female presence, but only expressing herself when no one is looking. Throughout the story, the narrator becomes more obsessed with the wallpaper, the figures and movement of the pattern. This is her only source of entertainment and she begins to identify with the woman that is trapped. As the story moves along and she becomes even more depressed, she begins to make plans to free the woman. Her goal is to do so within two days, which is their scheduled departure date from the house. She begins picking and tearing at the wallpaper to not only free the woman she sees, but also as a source of taking her own control (Gilman 11). She is defying her husband, as he certainly would not approve of her actions or thoughts. As she tears the wallpaper she hears shrieks, but is intent on allowing the woman to go free. During the time that she is peeling the paper, she contemplates jumping out the window, but is unable to because there are bars on the windows. She also notes that she is afraid of all the other women creeping outside. Some may feel that the narrator has been driven mad by the wallpaper at this point, however it seems that the meaning is that of her final decision not to care what her husband thinks. She is following what she feels and standing up for her own freedom by releasing the woman behind the wallpaper. When her husband learns of her actions, he breaks his way into the room and then faints at the sight of what she has done. He, of course believes that she has gone completely mad and faints. The story ends with the narrator creeping around the perimeter of the room, even stepping over his body in the process (Gilman 12). Again her stepping over his body is symbolic that she is no longer under his control, even though she has likely suffered a nervous breakdown and has lost her mind.

In conclusion, Gilman’s story is that of a personal account from a female’s perspective. The narrator comes to identify with the women in the wallpaper that she imagines. Of course these delusions are due to her illness, which is most likely related to depression and post-partum, as there is a baby referenced in the story. Medical conditions were not understood and the general consensus of the time was to use natural remedies coupled with rest. Those that suffered from depression or other mental disorders would likely be separated from the general community as they simply didn’t know what else to do with them. Along with the narrator suffering from depression, she was also a victim of historical oppression. During this time, women were seen as less than equal and not allowed to express opinions or take an active role in decision making. Their place was in a domestic role and nothing more. While some might say that the wallpaper drove the narrator crazy, others might see it as an escape from an oppressive reality in the only manner that she could control; her own thoughts and bizarre actions!

Works Cited

Gilman, Charlotte. “The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; The Yellow Wallpaper Page 1.” Page By Page Books. Read Classic Books Online, Free. . N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2011. <http://www.pagebypagebooks

Stuck with your Essay?

Get in touch with one of our experts for instant help!

Blog Posting: Us and Them, Essay Example

Emerging Technologies in Distance Learning, Article Review Example

Time is precious

don’t waste it!

Plagiarism-free guarantee

Privacy guarantee

Secure checkout

Money back guarantee

Related Essay Samples & Examples

Voting as a civic responsibility, essay example.

Pages: 1

Words: 287

Utilitarianism and Its Applications, Essay Example

Words: 356

The Age-Related Changes of the Older Person, Essay Example

Pages: 2

Words: 448

The Problems ESOL Teachers Face, Essay Example

Pages: 8

Words: 2293

Should English Be the Primary Language? Essay Example

Pages: 4

Words: 999

The Term “Social Construction of Reality”, Essay Example

Words: 371

The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Topics & Samples

At some point in your studying, you might be asked to produce “The Yellow Wallpaper” analysis essay. Well, if you’re reading this, you have already received this task! Let’s start by choosing a suitable topic to write about.

This article by Custom-Writing.org experts contains “The Yellow Wallpaper” essay topics, “The Yellow Wallpaper” essay prompts, and writing samples. Go on reading if you want to learn more!

• 🌟 How to Choose
• 💡 Essay Topics
• 🎓 Thesis Ideas
• 📝 Essay Prompts
• ❓ Top 12 Questions
• 🔍 Research Paper Topics
• ✒️ Essay Samples

🌟 The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Topics: How to Choose

First of all, you need to think about the topic of your paper. One way to choose a writing idea is to consider the main facts about “The Yellow Wallpaper”:

• The story was written at the end of the 19th century about mental disorder treatment of that time.
• It is considered one of the strongest and most prominent pieces of feminist literature .

These facts might be your first clue for choosing an essay topic. Try to look at the issues of mental health and gender stereotypes from your perspective.  

In case you don’t particularly fancy the theme of feminism in “The Yellow Wallpaper” , there are many other options to choose from. Here are two tips that will help you pick an essay topic:

• Try highlighting the moments that stand out for you in the story. Then, expand on them in your paper.
• Write down any questions you might have during the reading to use them later.

However, if you don’t want to spend too much time on it, jump straight away to our list of topics for “The Yellow Wallpaper” essays.

💡 The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Topics

• The meaning of the story’s title.
• “The Yellow Wallpaper”   as a horror story.
• Representation of madness in the story.
• The significance of the unnamed narrator.
• Color symbolism in Gilman’s story.
• Explain why the story’s ending is optimistic.
• Study the use of Gothic elements in the narrative.
• Why ”The Yellow Wallpaper” is still relevant today.
• The meaning of “creeping” in “The Yellow Wallpaper”.
• Comparison of A Rose for Emily and “The Yellow Wallpaper”.  
• John as Dr. Mitchel’s double in ”The Yellow Wallpaper”.
• The symbolism of a fixed bed in Gilman’s story.
• Marriage in “The Yellow Wallpaper” and The Story of an Hour .
• Infantilization of the story’s protagonist by her husband.
• Describe the role of nature in ”The Yellow Wallpaper”. 
• How a 19 th -century woman’s yearnings are presented by Gilman.
• Examine the trope of the haunted house in ”The Yellow Wallpaper”.
• Writing as a process of self-assertion in “The Yellow Wallpaper”.
• How Gilman’s story influenced mental health treatment of women.
• The perils of marriage and motherhood in “The Yellow Wallpaper”.

📝 The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Prompts

• Study the issue of the gender roles in the story and compare it to modern norms. “The Yellow Wallpaper” highlights the problem of the suppression of women. Your essay on this topic may include some comments on family life as well. Since this topic is quite popular, we also suggest presenting your unique interpretation of this question.
• The Yellow Wallpaper’s conclusion: different versions. How do you understand the ending of the story? Why, in your opinion, did the author cut it at that specific moment? Brainstorm these questions and try to figure out what would be the best interpretation. Don’t forget to support your opinion with fair arguments.
• What is the relationship between the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” and her diary? The main character seems to get some relief from journaling her thoughts and daily life events. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help prevent the total crash of her identity at the end of the story. You can write “The Yellow Wallpaper” character analysis essay about it.
• Draw a parallel between the description of the wallpaper and the mental health of the narrator. We can notice the change in the writing as the mental illness of the narrator progresses. Look into one particular aspect there: the description of the wallpaper. How does the pattern change in foreshadowing future breakdown?
• Compare “The Yellow Wallpaper” to another feminist piece of writing of the same time frame Here it would be perfect if you found some unique elements that Charlotte Perkins Gilman uses in her story. Don’t forget that the focus of this essay should be on the theme of feminism . For better outcomes, add a quotation as a hook at the beginning of your essay.
• “ The Yellow Wallpaper” and marriage : is it the fault of the husband? Most people prefer to blame the husband in this story. Indeed, in the 19th century, women didn’t have much choice. However, we can see that the narrator has the power to resist the control of her husband. She doesn’t understand that she can do it.
• The role of personification as a tool used by Charlotte Perkins Gilman . It’s a great topic for a literary analysis essay on “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Go through the story’s plot again and find out why personification is used at some moments. How does it affect the writing’s mood, and doesn’t Gilman use some other devices there?
• Stigmatizing postpartum depression in “The Yellow Wallpaper”. This issue is related to feminism. Most women’s psychological problems are neglected as only being “in the head.” Miserable were those suffering postpartum depression, as one can see from the treatment plan chosen by John in the story.
• Explore different literary devices that are used to highlight the issue of depression in “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Analyze what the narrator writes about her state and find the literary devices that Gilman uses to relate to it. For instance, repetition points out the confusion on the one hand and hopelessness on the other.
• Can we trust the narrator? The point of view in “The Yellow Wallpaper” plays an important role. The reader can only perceive the events through the narrator’s eyes. However, it means that some things can be not that obvious. Try to analyze the hints and symbolism to find out the missing part of the story.

❓ Top 12 The Yellow Wallpaper Essay Questions

• What is the role of creativity in the protagonist’s journey?
• What imagery helps to convey the main character’s isolation?
• Why does the woman in the wallpaper go in circles?
• How does the protagonist’s mental state change throughout the story?
• How does the main character’s confinement contribute to her mental decline?
• In what ways does Jennie represent a patriarchal woman in ”The Yellow Wallpaper”?
• Why does the main character hide her diary from others?
• How does “The Yellow Wallpaper” portray the 19 th century’s cult of true womanhood?
• Why is S. Weir Mitchel’s real name mentioned in the story?
• How does the story challenge traditional notions of femininity and domesticity?
• How does the setting of the nursery convey the protagonist’s sense of loss and longing?
• How does the protagonist’s journey in ”The Yellow Wallpaper” reflect the broader feminist movement of the time?

🔍 Top 15 The Yellow Wallpaper Research Paper Topics

• Analyze the story through the prism of male gaze.
• The juxtaposition of logical men vs. irrational women in the story.
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Freud’s misconceptions about hysteria.
• How Gilman’s story relates to Cixous’ ideas about écriture feminine.
• Foucault’s Panopticon Effect as portrayed in “The Yellow Wallpaper”.
• Analysis of Gilman’s story through the lens of Simone de Beauvoir.
• “The Yellow Wallpaper”: comparison to The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan.
• The wallpaper pattern as the bars of a prison constructed by society.
• Analyze the binary opposition presented in the story through the prism of Jacques Lacan’s ideas of the Imaginary and the Symbolic orders.
• Interpret the rhizomatic identity of the main character in “The Yellow Wallpaper” via Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of schizoanalysis.
• How does madness liberate the main character from patriarchal concepts of femininity?
• Daylight universe of masculinity vs. the nighttime world of imagination in “The Yellow Wallpaper”.
• How “The Yellow Wallpaper” had predicted the problem of “the trapped housewife” in America.
• Internalized and shared patriarchal values in women characters from “The Yellow Wallpaper”.
• How the wallpaper in the story represents the main character’s subconscious.

🎓 The Yellow Wallpaper Thesis Ideas

• Spiritual liberation through the awakening of female consciousness in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
• Dystopian elements in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” through the lens of horror: How terror and subversion are used in the narration.
• The color yellow in relation to psychology through the lens of Gilman’s story.
• Comparative study of female agency in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Plath’s “The Bell Jar.”
• Psychoanalytic perspectives on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.”
• How Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” reflects the theme of a female body.
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” as a biography: The parallels between the protagonist’s experiences and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s struggles with mental health.
• The rebellion against social norms in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story.
• The analysis of John’s character and his role as husband in “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
• Unreliable narration in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and its effect on the reader’s perception.
• How Gilman uses language, storytelling, and images to portray madness.
• The suppression of creativity and artistic expression in the face of social expectations in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
• Myths and archetypes: Gilman’s story through the lens of Carl Jung’s theory.
• The ending of Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” as a reflection on late 19th-century women’s mental health treatment and its implications on gendered dynamics.

✒️ The Yellow Wallpaper: Essay Samples

Below you’ll find a collection of The Yellow Wallpaper essay examples. Hope you’ll find them useful!

• “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Key Themes
• Alger’s “Ragged Dick” and Gilman’s “Yellow Wallpaper”
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “The Laugh of the Medusa”
• Social Values and Norms in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• American Women in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• Symbolism in “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• The Story of an Hour and The Yellow Wallpaper: Comparison
• Mental Illness in The Yellow Wallpaper
• The Yellow Wallpaper and Everyday Use Literature: Comparison
• Women Characters in Chopin’s, Gilman’s, Faulkner’s Stories
• Isolation, Patriarchy, Materialism, and Mental Illness in “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Review
• Plots of Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• Feminist “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• Literary Elements in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• The Description of Wallpaper in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Gilman
• Color in The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Perkins
• Gender in The Great Gatsby & The Yellow Wallpaper
• Uncovering the Wallpaper in Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”
• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to LinkedIn
• Share to email

A young woman experiences postpartum depression. Her husband (a physician) takes her on vacation to a mansion to recover by “rest cure.” She loses her mind being confined to a room with a yellow wallpaper. But what is the short story really about? “The Yellow Wallpaper” Study Guide answers this...

This article by Custom-Writing.org experts contains all you need to know about the events in “The Yellow Wallpaper”: a short summary, a plot infographic, and a detailed description of the story’s entries. In the first section, you’ll find a synopsis of what happened in “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins...

This article by Custom-Writing.org experts contains all the information about The Yellow Wallpaper’s characters: the narrator, John, Mary, and Jennie. At the end of the article, you’ll learn who Jane is and how she’s related to The Yellow Wallpaper’s main character. 🗺️ The Yellow Wallpaper: Character Map Below you’ll find...

This article by Custom-Writing.org experts provides a wide-ranging and diverse explanation of The Yellow Wallpaper’s themes. The core issues represented in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story are gender roles, mental illness, and freedom. Although the writer speaks about her own time, these themes are just as relevant today, if not...

This article by Custom-Writing.org experts contains a comprehensive analysis of literary devices in “The Yellow Wallpaper”: color symbolism, personification, point of view used by Gilman, foreshadowing, and an explanation of the ending’s meaning. 🌈 The Yellow Wallpaper: Symbolism How unfortunate is it that a woman has a mental breakdown just...

The Metamorphosis is one of Kafka’s best-known books. It is also one of the most intricate literary pieces in world literature. This is why coming up with an excellent The Metamorphosis essay topic can be challenging. The following list can help you to get started. See if any of these...

Since its publication in 1915, Kafka’s The Metamorphosis puzzled readers and critics all over the world. The story centers around Gregor Samsa’s transformation into a gigantic insect. The situation is both surreal and unusual. However, the writer proceeds with the story in a realistic manner. Nevertheless, there is a lot...

There are several overarching themes of The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, but only two are crucial. The story starts when the central transformation has already happened. However, each character in the novella goes through its journey: Gregor, Grete, Gregor’s mother, and Gregor’s father. In this article, you’ll see how characters...

The novella The Metamorphosis focuses on two main characters Gregor and Grete. However, two more heroes are present in every chapter throughout the novella, Mrs. Samsa and Mr. Samsa. All the other The Metamorphosis characters represent the outside world for the family. They appear and disappear in the narrative without...

The Metamorphosis is a short story written by Franz Kafka, which was first published in 1915. One of his best-known works, it tells a story about a man called Gregor Samsa and his peculiar transformation. He and his family have to deal with the consequences of this metamorphosis. The Metamorphosis...

Do you need to compose an essay on Othello? Are you unsure of your writing skills? Don’t stress out! You are on the right page! Here, you can find compelling Othello essay topics, insightful prompts, and useful examples. So, check out our ideas and be ready to write an outstanding...

Do you want to understand all the aspects of one of William Shakespeare’s most famous works— Othello for your essay writing? The symbolism in Othello can help you with that! In his play, Shakespeare includes various symbols, such as animals, a handkerchief, and others that help him to deliver his...

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Yellow Wallpaper — Imagery In The Yellow Wallpaper

Imagery in The Yellow Wallpaper

• Categories: Art Nouveau The Yellow Wallpaper

About this sample

Words: 785 |

Published: Mar 5, 2024

Words: 785 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Verified writer

• Expert in: Arts & Culture Literature

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

2 pages / 1024 words

3.5 pages / 1624 words

5.5 pages / 2521 words

3.5 pages / 1498 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on The Yellow Wallpaper

Mental illness is an issue that is all too familiar. However, it is perturbing that a significant section of the society still experiences difficulty in accepting mental conditions. Mental illness currently represents a [...]

Feminism is a central theme in literature, often explored through the experiences of female characters and their struggles for autonomy and self-expression. This essay examines the theme of feminism in two iconic short stories, [...]

Women’s role in society has always been a widely-discussed topic. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin are two stories that explore this issue. Do you want to compare and [...]

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story, 'The Yellow Wallpaper,' is a literary work that operates on multiple levels, with a significant subtext concerning gender roles and mental health. In this essay, we will delve into the [...]

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s literary work ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ is often considered as an important early work of American feminist literature which illustrates common social and physiological attitudes towards women during the [...]

In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin we see how during this time, life revolves around how men view women and their qualities. “The Story of an Hour” relates to “The [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Welcome to the new Ploughshares website! To learn more about logging in and what to expect, read here .

Realism and the Weird in “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “The Story We Used to Tell”

Two women staying in grand country houses lose their grip on reality as they attempt to cope with the unexplainable. Their breakdowns are each closely tied to a piece of art that is more than it seems—in one case, hideously tinted sheets of wallpaper; in the other, a malevolent picture. Yet Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s 1892 short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a feminist classic typically read as a depiction of postpartum depression compounded by the casual mental violence of misogyny, and Shirley Jackson’s “The Story We Used to Tell” (first published posthumously in the collection Just an Ordinary Day in 1996) is counted as another piece of genre work in Jackson’s remarkable horror oeuvre.

To be clear, there is nothing inherently misguided about either interpretation. “The Yellow Wallpaper” certainly contains more than enough subtext—and just plain text—to support a rational explanation for the unnamed narrator’s descent into madness, and Katharine and her friend Y in Jackson’s tale are without a doubt drawn into the mysterious picture in the old wing by supernatural means. Some of the frisson that binds these two eerie tales together is lost, however, when genre boundaries deem one realistic and the other fantastical. When read together, Perkins Gilman’s tale reveals the realism peeking behind the frame of “The Story We Used to Tell,” and Jackson’s short story illuminates the otherworldly horror plaguing the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

A helpful tool for seeing these two works as part of a shared spectrum is the literary mode of the weird. Lacking allegiance to any one genre (although it’s often associated with horror and science fiction), the weird is instead a way of looking at our environments—or, more accurately, human attempts to interpret those environments. In “Toward a Theory of the New Weird,” Elvia Wilk explains that the weird can be defined as “the thing that literally exists but nonetheless resists linguistic description or cognitive explanation…dismantl[ing] the very tools of signification and representation that fiction depends on.” The weird also strips down the differences between the literal and the metaphorical, allowing weird narratives to function “on a very concrete level” that makes room for the absurd and unexplainable without any pretensions towards understanding.

As a story preoccupied with the breakdown of language and structures of meaning, “The Yellow Wallpaper” may be the perfect example of the weird’s power to refocus analysis of mainstream classics. The narrator begins a secret journal, because “dead paper” is “a great relief to [her] mind.” She’s desperate for any sort of confidante, trapped in an isolated country house after the birth of her child, with only her husband and sister-in-law for company. They refuse to grapple with her rising paranoia regarding the figures she sees in the “repellent” paper plastering her room.

The journal begins coherently, with the narrator referring frequently to her husband’s rational explanations for her depression and exhaustion. But as it goes on, she turns increasingly inward, rejecting his patronizing explanations and insisting that “[t]here are things in that paper that nobody knows but me,” one of which is “a woman stooping down and creeping about.” By the conclusion of the story, the narrator has given herself in completely to the lure of the wallpaper, ripping down yards of it and crawling on the floor like the woman she’s haunted by. “I’ve got out at last,” she cries to her horrified husband, “you can’t put me back.” The lines of communication that bound them at first have been fractured completely: he is trapped in his own world of masculine empiricism just as she has disappeared into the one beyond the wallpaper.

The standard reading for “The Yellow Wallpaper” is to interpret all of these events metaphorically. The wallpaper is a last-ditch escape for a woman reeling from postpartum depression and the mind-warping boredom of the “rest cure” (which Perkins Gilman herself endured after the birth of her daughter), and the woman in the wallpaper is the narrator’s suppressed rage, finally bursting out in florid madness. Still, there is something disquieting about the story, a lingering unease that can’t be explained away. Perhaps it is the malignity of the wallpaper itself, made up of “outrageous angles” that “destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions.”

This description of alien geometries incomprehensible to the human eye predates the cosmic horror of H.P. Lovecraft but feels very Lovecraftian in its insistence on the unknowability of evil (incidentally, Lovecraft thought so too, categorizing “The Yellow Wallpaper” as a tale of “cosmic fear” in his landmark essay “Supernatural Horror in Literature”). Attempts to chalk all of this eeriness up to manifestations of post-partum psychosis have never satisfied me, as a reader or a critic. Neatly dismissing strangeness with a diagnosis seems a disservice, not only to Perkins Gilman’s formidable grasp of the ghost story, but also to the complexities of human experience. Why, I find myself thinking, does it all have to be so explainable ?

With the weird, it doesn’t. Taking its primary dictum—that many things lie outside of human comprehension—it’s possible to take the events of “The Yellow Wallpaper” at face value, seeing the narrator’s encounters with the woman in the wall as just as possible as a psychological break. It also raises the question of whether the rationality we gain by superimposing a medical prognosis over her experience is desirable. By diagnosing her, are readers demanding the same rationality and easy answers the narrator’s husband demands at the price of her mind and soul? In the end, this question seems to me to be the strongest argument for reading the short story as a weird tale. Challenging standard interpretations restores its essential unknowableness, the element that continues to bring me back to “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

If the weird, then, is most concerned with pushing the needle beyond what is expected and comprehensible, it is also possible to use this mode as a way to access the queasily familiar emotions lingering in “The Story We Used to Tell.” In many ways a narrative and thematic twin to “The Yellow Wallpaper,” it is also much more overtly fantastical. Narrator Katharine is visiting her newly widowed friend, Y, in Y’s husband’s family mansion. There is an old painting of the house in Y’s room that, like Perkins Gilman’s wallpaper, is imbued with a sort of reality-bending power, “with the windows of this very room shinning faintly through the trees, and the steep winding road coming…down to the very edge of the picture.” The women joke about the creepiness of the picture, and shortly afterwards Y disappears.

When she sees an old woman “hanging on the inside of the glass of the picture, gibbering,” Katharine follows her into the picture and becomes trapped along with Y, at the mercy of “some malevolence of the old house” embodied by the ghost of Y’s grandfather-in-law and the old woman he has already driven to insanity. Knowing they can never escape, Katharine and Y murder the couple, hang their bodies in the woods behind the house, and become siren-like figures, calling others into the picture with them.

“The Story We Used to Tell” is unquestionably weird, not only in its main conceit (a ghostly picture never explained by any internal logic), but, on a deeper level, in its depiction of Katharine and Y’s reactions to the situations they find themselves contending with. Returning to the idea of the weird as a vessel for the unfathomable, it’s worth asking what is more inexplicable in a horror short story: that mysterious and terrifying forces exist, or that, knowing they exist, human beings are still convinced that their feelings and beliefs are paramount, ignoring evidence that the natural order does not care for them at all?

When John, Y’s lawyer, suggests that Y may have taken her life because of grief, Katharine is adamant that that is something her friend would never do: “she was going to sell this house…try to start life over again.” Jackson never conclusively comments on Y’s mental state before her disappearance, emphasizing Katharine’s insistence on her convictions in the face of what may be reasonable evidence.  It’s a more sympathetic precursor to her and Y’s decision at the end of the short story to call John into the picture with them, letting their feelings of loneliness or predation govern their actions, despite clear knowledge of what the consequences of those actions will be. By the end of the tale, he “runs constantly about the house, screaming and beating the walls,” as unhinged as the grandfather’s first victim.

While the emotions driving Katharine and Y are as crucial to the plot as in any work of psychological realism, reading Jackson’s story weirdly reveals the nihilism and cruelty that emerge when human emotions do not have the central importance we are used to ascribing to them. In fact, these feelings are inconsequential at best and destructive at worst, and wholly insignificant in the face of unknowable evil. “The Story We Used to Tell” calls into question the universality of human feeling, just as a weird reading of “The Yellow Wallpaper” disputes the value of rationalism.

Seeing both tales as manifestations of the weird presents a final paradox. If neither rationality nor emotions are reliable ways to interpret human experience, what analytical framework does that leave us with? This is a question without answer, of course—a fitting enigma for a literary mode that draws no conclusions, regardless of whether those conclusions have to do with genre, style, or human existence itself. What it does provide is a creatively provocative way of considering the books we read and the world we live in. That will have to be answer enough.

Similar Posts

Sudden, Gradual Change

I had been trying to get my 4-year-old daughter to put her face in the water at the pool for two years before she just suddenly did it one day—one night, really, near the end of this summer, the light dying, the rest of us standing poolside with our shoes on and our bags packed telling her come on, get out, time to go home.

The Landscape of Memory

For most of us, memory supplies meaning and connection to our past selves, our place of origin, a greater world. Memory gives us meaning.

Either/Or ’s Aesthetic Questioning

In Elif Batuman’s new novel, Selin is trying to figure out how to narrate love, how to make it make narrative sense; on the way, she figures out what love and novels have to do with each other.

Washington Small Presses Make Their Mark

While New York remains the center of gravity in the publishing world, a new breed of independent presses in the nation’s capital are set to pull some of that force down south.

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Disruption of Language

The difficulty of communication between writer and reader illustrates the instability and contradiction Theresa Hak Kyung Cha saw in the roles she inhabited. Cha understood herself as a series of multiple, fragmented identities, the makeup of which could not be fully or accurately articulated using the crude tools of language.

Jesmyn Ward’s Southern Roots

History overlaps with, influences, and outright intrudes on the present, and in Ward’s fictional world that happens metaphorically, mentally, and then literally through visions and ghosts.

Review Cart

No products in the cart.

Advertisement

Supported by

Young, Restless and Fired Up in the Cool Gray City of Love

Francine Prose’s new memoir, “1974,” looks back at her brief but transformative relationship with a countercultural champion.

• Share full article

By Dwight Garner

• Barnes and Noble
• Books-A-Million

When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.

1974: A Personal History , by Francine Prose

Francine Prose married young, in her final semester at Radcliffe. The match was imperfect, and she and her husband both suffered. The cultural winds blew against them. The great music emerging from the car stereo was zero help. “The music we loved had come to seem like a reproach, a reminder: Someone is in love, but it isn’t you, and you will never feel like that again,” Prose writes in her new memoir, “1974: A Personal History.”

Monogamy, she adds, “seemed embarrassing, hopelessly square and old-fashioned. The culture encouraged, expected and all but insisted upon erotic restlessness. Sex was free; sex was everywhere, a source of wonder, pleasure and heat without the chilling effect of familiarity and repetition.”

Within three years she was divorced. By 1974, when she was 26, she was spending more time in San Francisco and less time in Cambridge, where she had been in graduate school. Out west, she felt unfettered and alive (she was a Joni Mitchell fan). She lived with a bohemian older couple. They all existed on good coffee and “avocado sandwiches on San Francisco sourdough bread with mayo, black pepper and alfalfa sprouts.”

That year, at a poker game in the apartment, she met Tony Russo . Along with Daniel Ellsberg, Russo leaked the Pentagon Papers, which laid bare America’s perfidy in Vietnam. Published in The New York Times in 1971, the papers, in Prose’s summary, “confirmed what the antiwar movement had never been able to prove: Our presence in Vietnam was unwanted. We’d committed war crimes.”

Russo was a countercultural and free-speech hero. He had spent 47 days in jail for refusing to testify against Ellsberg. He worked for NASA and later the RAND Corporation, where he was involved in a study of how Vietcong prisoners were interrogated, and some of their stories moved him deeply. By the time Prose met him, he was paranoid and unemployed. “An aura of unease surrounded him,” Prose writes, “the faint distressing buzz of an electrical panel with a burnt fuse and some wires pulled loose.”

Russo was charismatic, though, a Virginia-born charmer with a Southern accent. Prose had a thing for bad boys. Here was antiwar royalty. He was 10 years older. Before long they were riding around in his old, putty-colored Buick and talking all night, while he chain-smoked Camels.

Was it a love affair? Not quite. The sex was minimal and awkward. But there was something between them, if briefly, and that something is among the primary subjects of this memoir, which despite its darts of insight and many flashes of good writing remains lukewarm and distant. They didn’t know each other that well. Prose nonetheless hangs a great deal of her memoir on Russo and rehashes the well-known issues surrounding the Pentagon Papers themselves. Russo explains his past in long monologues.

There is more here. Prose is at work figuring out who she was in 1974, before she returned home to New York the following year. She writes, perceptively, “One danger of writing about yourself is that you may learn things about yourself that you don’t want to know.”

On the one hand, Prose was on the run from a borderline breakdown she’d had in Cambridge. She’d become an agoraphobe, unable to leave her apartment. She was fragile. Even thunderstorms threatened her sanity. She spent a lot of time consulting the I Ching. “I had absolutely no idea where I belonged in the universe or what I was going to do,” she writes. In her flight west she resembled a latter-day Charlotte Perkins Gilman, who moved to Pasadena from New England to recover from the postpartum depression she described in “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892).

On the other hand, Prose seems to have been one of the great overachievers of her era. She had a coddled upbringing. Both her parents were doctors. By 1974 she had published two well-received novels and was at work on her third. She had done a good deal of foreign travel and spent time writing in an apartment in Bombay with a view of the Arabian Sea. She had many far-flung friends she could drop in on.

Prose catastrophized good news. Here is her reaction when a publisher called to say that he wanted to publish her first novel:

First I didn’t understand what he was saying; then I didn’t believe it. I leaned against a wall and grabbed the back of a chair. I saw myself falling. I saw broken limbs. I saw crutches, I saw punishment for good fortune beyond anything I deserved.

I wonder how she reacted when her novel “Blue Angel” (2000) was named a finalist for the National Book Award.

If this quarter-life crisis memoir were a stool, the third leg — after Russo’s story and Prose’s own — would be the author’s attempt at a group portrait of her generation, not the baby boomers writ large but a sophisticated subset of them. This material is the least successful. A good deal of tired cultural and political history is given another airing, in the box-ticking manner of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” There are many sentences on the order of “we were very young and very fired up” and “we believed that love was the strongest emotion.”

There are just enough memorable set pieces to keep the reader going. In one of them, Prose runs into the Cockettes, the gender-bending theater troupe, in a San Francisco grocery store. Here were “a half-dozen drag queens, in full beards, feather boas, chest hair and satin gowns,” she writes. “They skittered like butterflies, only louder, maximizing the drama of stuffing family-sized bags of candy corn into their shopping baskets.”

She continues: “Whoever these marvelous creatures were, they were not like anyone in the Harvard English department. I felt dazzled, like Dorothy leaving black-and-white Kansas for a world redecorated in the rainbow pastels of a children’s breakfast cereal.”

The cool gray city of love could always, in a moment, brighten up.

1974 : A Personal History | By Francine Prose | Harper | 257 pp. | $27.99

Dwight Garner has been a book critic for The Times since 2008, and before that was an editor at the Book Review for a decade. More about Dwight Garner

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

John S. Jacobs was a fugitive, an abolitionist — and the brother of the canonical author Harriet Jacobs. Now, his own fierce autobiography has re-emerged .

Don DeLillo’s fascination with terrorism, cults and mass culture’s weirder turns has given his work a prophetic air. Here are his essential books .

Jenny Erpenbeck’s “ Kairos ,” a novel about a torrid love affair in the final years of East Germany, won the International Booker Prize , the renowned award for fiction translated into English.

Kevin Kwan, the author of “Crazy Rich Asians,” left Singapore’s opulent, status-obsessed, upper crust when he was 11. He’s still writing about it .

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .